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I am a wife, a mother to 2 boys, and a Christian Kindergarten Teacher. Besides spending time with my family, I enjoy sewing, scrapbooking, quilting and creating innovative, hands on lessons for my students.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Why teach non-standard measurement?

Non-standard measurement is using common objects to measure versus using a ruler or measuring tape. You can use just about anything, like legos, blocks, pencils. Using common objects and pictures make the introduction of measurement fun. I have found that using pictures of animals from the weekly/monthly theme to measure items in the classroom is fun and kinesthetic for my students. I have created several different worksheets that teach non-standard measurement:

On this worksheet the children were asked to cut out a set of each of the bugs shown. Each bug is a different size therefore requiring more or less bugs to measure. I instructed them to start at the bottom of the tree and work their way up to the top. They were then to count how many bugs it took to measure the tree and record that number next to the proper bug. Even though this student's 6 is backwards she ended up with all of the correct answers.

Once we were finished with the worksheet I had each child pick a pile of one type of bug, they were then allowed to measure items in our room. They measured legos, tables, window sills, the sink, my computer, blocks and much more, As they were doing this they would just shout out how long each item was. The next day I gave them the common room item worksheet to complete, which has several of these common items with a space for recording and 2 open spots for them to measure anything they want.

These worksheets and bug patterns are in my Bugs Mtah and Literacy Unit. Click the link below to see the details and more images.